The spring rain was drizzling, and the river was filled with mistyness. Several official boats were flowing downstream. The new governor of Ezhou, Li Yuan, Duke of Tang, couldn't help feeling relaxed and happy when he looked at the spectacular river view outside the window.

Last year, Li Yuan followed the army to pacify Yizhou and performed well. Now, the emperor has appointed him as the governor of Ezhou, so Li Yuan has brought his family to Ezhou to take office. At this time, he is full of spring breeze.

The number of households in Ezhou is 43,000. Because the number of households exceeds 30,000, it is Zhengbashi Prefecture. As the governor of Ezhou, Li Yuan was Zhengbashi Prefecture and was the best among the governors.

Of course, Ezhou, the Zhengbaming Prefecture, is incomparable to those Zhengbaming Prefectures with tens of thousands or even nearly 100,000 households in the Central Plains. However, for Li Yuan, being a governor in Ezhou is easier than being a governor in Henan and Hebei.

Because Ezhou does not have aristocratic families and arbitrary powerhouses, although it is near the river, it has complete water conservancy facilities, so it is relatively easy to persuade farmers and suburbans. More importantly, if you want to achieve political achievements, it is easier than elsewhere.

"There are more than 20,000 residents in Daye City, and most of them and the garrisons are not included in the state registration. This is not as good as other states and counties. Shude needs to remember it."

"The Daye Supervision has several new iron smelting furnaces. The fires in the supervision are constantly coming every day, and a large number of iron tools are needed to be built. It is not even cold when loaded on the car..." Xu Shao put down the information and continued to say to Li Yuan:

"Now not only Jingxiang, Shannan, but also Tanzhou General Administration and Hongzhou General Administration are waiting for iron farm tools. How many iron products are needed? Shude cannot let Daye Supervisor make mistakes, otherwise several general managers will sue them to Chang'an."

The Tanzhou General Administration Office is in charge of the Dongting Lake area, the Hongzhou General Administration Office is in charge of the Pengli Lake area. These two are important grain-producing areas south of the Yangtze River. Li Yuan knew this and looked at the information in his hand and felt that the responsibility was very heavy.

Xu Shao continued, although he had no information in his hand, he actually remembered all the contents, so he could do it casually: "Not only that, now that the large-scale land reclamation in various parts of Huaixi is now in large demand for iron products, and it cannot be stopped."

"There are also iron pots, which are a shortage of goods. Whether it is officials or civilians, there is a great demand for iron pots, so the fire in Daye Supervision cannot be stopped for a day."

"But these are all secondary. Now the court has agreed to allow the construction of Guanghuang Railway. The construction period is very tight and there is no mistake. Therefore, Daye Jian really cannot make mistakes."

"Of course, Daye Supervision only needs to provide iron materials on time, quality and quantity. As for the construction of the railway, Shude does not need a headache."

Hearing this, Li Yuan picked up another stack of information, and just looked through it, he was so shocked by the dense handwriting and schematic diagrams on it that he couldn't speak.

He looked at Xu Shao and asked curiously: "Can this Guanghuang Railway really recover the cost?"

"This is natural, otherwise the court debate would not be able to pass."

Speaking of this, Xu Shao was quite proud. Not long ago, he and Huangzhou Chief Secretary Hao Wu Bo rushed to Chang'an. In the Tai Chi Hall, in front of the emperor and the court officials, they debated the "railway" from Huangzhou Xiyang to Guangcheng to Guangzhou with opponents.

The two of them held a thick stack of information and fought against the ministers who also held a thick stack of information, and the debate was so dark that it finally made this shocking construction plan pass.

This means that once the "Guanghuang Railway" is completed, the material and personnel circulation capacity between Huangzhou and Guangzhou will be greatly enhanced.

All kinds of products produced by Huangzhou workshops can be transported across the Dabie Mountains at a lower transportation cost, and then entered the Huai River Basin by water transportation. This railway will be a road of wealth for Huangzhou's manufacturing industry.

Railway is a novel thing that appeared in Huangzhou and Ezhou. On the "railway" composed of two "rail tracks", there are rail carriages running. The carriages carry much more cargo than ordinary carriages, and they travel faster and can stably maintain the movement speed of forty miles per hour.

Once the Guanghuang Railway, which is about 400 miles long, is completed, it means that the carriages departing from Xiyang can arrive at Guangcheng as soon as possible on the third day when the horses are replaced properly. Now, it will take at least seven days to transport goods of the same weight from Xiyang to Guangcheng.

The completion of such a railway means that Huangzhou will have a new beginning.

The prospects of Guanghuang Railway are beautiful, but difficulties are not without them. The construction of the railway is very demanding for the Huangzhou General Administration, but officials in Huangzhou are confident that they will do this top priority well.

Although the operation method of rail transportation is different from ordinary road transportation, this is not a problem for the Huangzhou General Administration.

The rail carriages in Xiyang City and the railway from Daye, Ezhou through Wuchang to Xiakou have been in operation for a long time, and have trained a large number of skilled "workers". Even the emperor has taken these two railways, so in fact, the court is not too unfamiliar with the railway.

Another problem is that the new railway to be built costs a huge amount of manpower and material resources, so many people are worried that the construction of Guanghuang Railway will overdraw people's strength and even stimulate civil unrest.

In this regard, the Chief General of Huangzhou, Hao Wubo, who has managed the railway and was responsible for the land operation of bulk materials, and Xu Shao, the governor of Jiangzhou, who is familiar with the Yangtze River water transportation, port affairs and good at collecting taxes, used detailed data and various dense cost accounting to convince the emperor and the imperial court that this railway was a contemporary "Zheng Guo Canal".

During the Warring States Period, Qin State was entrenched in Guan and China's strength was booming. In order to weaken Qin State's national strength, South Korea used "scheme to exhaust Qin" and sent Zheng State, a water management expert to enter Qin, to persuade the King of Qin to build a canal about 300 miles long in Guanzhong.

This canal will drain the Jing River to the east and pour the Luo River. After completion, it can irrigate tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land.

South Korea hoped that Qin's national strength would be dragged down by this canal and could not use troops to South Korea, but Qin really started to dig this canal. During the construction of the canal, Zheng's identity was exposed, but once again convinced the Qin King, which made Qin finally complete the water conservancy project.

This canal, named as Zheng State, is the "Zheng State Canal". Not only did it weaken Qin State, it instead made the Guanzhong land a fertile land, greatly enhancing the Qin State's national strength.

Now, Xu Shao and Hao Wubo have successfully convinced the emperor and the court to make the court think that the Guanghuang Railway will be the contemporary "Zhengguo Canal".

This Guanghuang Railway is built along the existing Guanghuang Trail. Although it is difficult, after years of careful investigation, there is no "technical difficulty" that cannot be overcome. However, after completion, a large number of pack horses are required to maintain a smooth operation of the railway.

At present, the biggest problem with the construction of the title list is that it is unheard of iron consumption. If Daye Supervisor had not supported it, the construction would not be started at all, let alone the completion. Therefore, Xu Shao repeatedly told his friends that Daye Supervisor must not make mistakes.

Li Yuan looked through the information and felt that the responsibility on his shoulders was getting heavier and heavier. Of course, this was something he knew before taking office, so he is very motivated now.

Now in the Shandong East Region of Shannan, Ezhou is the second most dazzling Zhengbamingzhou, Xiakou, Wuchang and Dayejian, which are all places with sharp population growth. Ezhou not only has railway transportation, but also Yangtze River shipping, which has caused the commercial tax collected by Ezhou to show an "explosive" growth.

Being able to be the governor of Zhengba Mingzhou is an excellent opportunity to win political achievements and reputation. The reason why Duke Li Yuan of Tang Dynasty was able to get this opportunity was of course related to his operations.

First of all, Li Yuan's grandfather Li Hu was one of the Eight Pillars of the Western Wei Dynasty at that time. The emperor wanted to win people's hearts and it was a good way to promote Li Yuan. In addition, Li Yuan performed well, so he had the opportunity to become one of the candidates.

Secondly, Xu Shao cleared the relationship for Li Yuan in front of someone, which is the most important point.

This operation was carried out by Li Yuan relying on his own "connections" (Xu Shao), and he did not rely on the power of his family at all. So after the matter was completed, Li Yuan straightened his waist much more in front of his relatives.

For Li Yuan, this is a new beginning. He wants everyone to see that "Duke of Tang Li Yuan" is not a pampered bag of wine!

This time he took his family to take office, and happened to be with Xu Shao who returned to Jiangzhou. The chief manager of Huangzhou Hao Wubo had already rushed back to Xiyang, Huangzhou in advance, because the position of Huangzhou's general manager is about to change.

At the end of last year, the official army recovered Yecheng, and the puppet imperial court was at a loss. Although the official army is still in Hebei and Hedong cleared the remnants of the Yuchi family, in Henan, the official army has recovered the Qingqi land.

The vast areas south of the Yellow River and north of the Huai River need important officials to stay in order to restore people's livelihood and stabilize the situation. Therefore, the emperor issued an edict to take charge of Henan with the royal family, Yuwen Wen.
Chapter completed!